April 18th, 2006 by
Keith

Have you ever wonder if you data is ever secured? From my experience, in least 50% of the people I know who uses Windows XP operating system, there is high possibility that certain partition of their hard-disk drive can be accessible from the network despite users did not (or intended to) share the folder on the network.

With security flaws unknown, users must be understand the need to encrypt data so that prying eyes have no use of the information even they managed to get hold of the data. They will need decryption to be able to read the information. As such, I introduce you TrueCrypt 4.2.

TrueCrypt has the capability to create a virtual drive and label it as a file on your hard drive. Users can access the virtual drive the way a normal drive is accessed. However, it is only when the users who had the password can mount the drive, and thus store data, and unmount it when not in used. Other users will not be able to mount the (virtual) drive, since it does not appear as a physical device on the hard drive.

In addition to create a virtual drive, TrueCrypt also supports encryption of the entire hard drive partition. It also supports encryption of removable drives, such as USB flash drive, making portable devices safer, in case if it is lost, stolen or landed onto the hands of wrong person.

This latest version supports creating encrypted partition on-the-fly, making it very user-friendly.

Main Features:

* Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.

* Encrypts an entire hard disk partition or a device, such as USB flash drive.

* Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.

* Provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:

Hidden volume (steganography – more information may be found here).

No TrueCrypt volume can be identified (volumes cannot be distinguished from random data).